Frank Welker
|birthplace = Denver, Colorado, U.S. |nationality = American |occupation = Voice Actor Actor |areas_active = Los Angeles |active = 1967-present |status = Active |agent = CESD Talent Agency }}Franklin Wendell Welker (born March 12, 1946) is an American voice actor and actor. He is best known for voicing Fred Jones and Scooby-Doo from the Scooby-Doo franchise, Megatron and Soundwave in the Transformers franchise, and Nibbler on Futurama. In 2016, Welker was honored with an Emmy Award for his lifetime achievement. Biography Welker was born in Denver, Colorado, on March 12, 1946. He moved to California and attended Santa Monica College in Santa Monica, California, where he majored in theatrical arts. In 1966, he received honors for his performance as the Cowardly Lion in the college's theater production of The Wizard of Oz. During his transition between college and his voice-acting career, his first voice-over role was in a commercial for Friskies dog food. The producer's girlfriend informed him of auditioning for Hanna-Barbera during the casting of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, where he initially auditioned for the title character (and, according to Casey Kasem, the role of Shaggy Rogers, as well) but instead won the role of Fred Jones. Welker has voiced Fred in almost every series and incarnation of the Scooby-Doo animated franchise (with the exception of A Pup Named Scooby-Doo) and has also provided the voice of Scooby-Doo since 2002. As of 2019, Welker is the only remaining original voice actor still involved in the series. His next major character voice was for Wonder Dog (which was inspired by Scooby-Doo) and Marvin White on the 1973 series Super Friends (also produced by Hanna-Barbera). That same year, he played Pudge and Gabby on DePatie-Freleng Enterprises' animated series Bailey's Comets. Welker continued to provide voices for many characters for Hanna-Barbera for several years, which include Jabberjaw, Dynomutt, Dog Wonder, and the Shmoo in The New Fred & Barney Show and its spin-off, The Flintstones Comedy Show. Frank Welker described the voice he used for the Shmoo as "a bubble voice" (one he would later use for Gogo Dodo in Tiny Toon Adventures). In 1978, he played the title character on Fangface and later in its spin-off, Fangface & Fangpuss, and also voiced Heckle and Jeckle and Quackula on The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse and Heckle & Jeckle, and Spike, Tyke, and Slick Wolf on The Tom & Jerry Comedy Show. During the 1980s and 1990s, Welker became a very busy actor, providing the voice for many popular cartoon characters in multiple TV series, including Brain, Doctor Claw, and M.A.D. Cat on Inspector Gadget; Mister Mxyzptlk, Darkseid, and Kalibak on Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show; Wild Bill, Dreadnok Torch, and various G.I. Joe heroes and villains; Scooter on Challenge of the GoBots; Ray Stantz and Slimer in The Real Ghostbusters; the villainous Dr. Jeremiah Surd on The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest; Bubba the Caveduck and two of the Beagle Boys (Bigtime & Baggie) on DuckTales; multiple voices on The Smurfs, including Hefty Smurf, Poet Smurf, and Peewit; and various characters on Captain Planet & the Planeteers. He also voiced various characters on The Simpsons, such as Santa's Little Helper, Snowball II, and various other animals from 1991 to his departure from the show in 2002. Welker provided both the speaking voice and animal sounds for Nibbler on Matt Groening's Futurama. He provided the voices for Mr. Plotz, Runt, Ralph the Guard, Buttons, and other characters on Animaniacs, Dragon featured in 2001's top comedy movie Shrek, Gogo Dodo, Furball, Beeper, and others on Tiny Toon Adventures, Hector the Bulldog on The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries, and McWolf the main antagonist to Droopy and his nephew Dripple on Tom & Jerry Kids Show and Droopy, Master Detective. Welker has also created the vocal effects for many animals and creatures in films, including Abu the monkey, Rajah the tiger, and the Cave of Wonders in Aladdin, its two sequels, the television series, and the remake, Arnold the Pig in the television film Return to Green Acres, the Martians in Tim Burton's Mars Attacks!, and the penguins in Mr. Popper's Penguins. He performed Spock's screams in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock and voiced The Thing in The Golden Child, Jinx the robot in SpaceCamp, Totoro in the 2005 English version of Studio Ghibli's film My Neighbor Totoro, Alien Sil in Species, Malebolgia in Spawn, and Gargamel's cat Azrael in Sony Pictures Animation's live-action/animated film versions of The Smurfs. In 2006, he began voicing George in the popular children's series Curious George. He also voiced George in the animated film of the same name that same year. In 2007, Welker became the new voice of Garfield, succeeding the original actor Lorenzo Music, who died in 2001 (Welker and Music had previously worked together on The Real Ghostbusters and the original Garfield & Friends). Welker voiced Garfield in Garfield Gets Real, Garfield's Fun Fest, Garfield's Pet Force, and on the series The Garfield Show, which ran from 2008 to 2016. Welker has also provided voices for many video game characters, most notably Disney's Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and The Shadow Blot in Epic Mickey and its sequel Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two, as well as Zurvan, also called the Ancient One, on StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm. He also provided the voice of the mad mage Xzar for the Baldur's Gate video game series, and reprised his role from Avengers Assemble as Odin for Lego Marvel's Avengers. Filmography Live-Action Dubbing TV Series *''Turbocharged Thunderbirds'' (1994-1995) - Brains (eps. 3-4), Rick O'Shea (ep. 4) Animation Dubbing Animated Series *''Inspector Gadget'' (1983-1986) - Dr. Claw (Redub; eps. 1-18, 21-23, 25-26, 28-35) *''The Legend of Calamity Jane'' (1997-1998) - Joe Presto *''Totally Spies!'' (2001-2013) - President's Bodyguards (ep. 18), Scientist (ep. 18), Teacher (ep. 18), U.S. President (ep. 18), Lion (ep. 43), Sherman (ep. 43), Zoo Boss (ep. 43), Additional Voices *''Winx Club'' (2004-present) - Mr. Rooney (ep. 81), Mr. Baston (ep. 86), Boss (ep. 98) (Nickelodeon Dub) Anime Dubbing Anime Films *''Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind'' (1984) - Gol (Buena Vista Dub) *''My Neighbor Totoro'' (1988) - Totoro, Catbus (Buena Vista Dub) *''Porco Rosso'' (1992) - Mamma Aiuto Gang Member #3 (Buena Vista Dub) Video Game Dubbing *''Kingdom Hearts'' (2002) - Abu *''Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep'' (2010) - Sparky External Links *Frank Welker at the Internet Movie Database *Frank Welker at Anime News Network's encyclopedia Category:Voice Actors Category:American Voice Actors Category:Los Angeles-Based Voice Actors Category:Voice Actors for Disney Category:Voice Actors for Studiopolis